Lovin' the Olympics

I don't know what it is about the Olympics, but I love watching it. Winter or summer, there are so many different events that I enjoy watching. It's funny, because I rarely ever watch sports otherwise. Tonight I was watching synchronized diving. I never even knew there was synchronized diving. I was amazed the the performance of the Chinese synchronized divers. They really earned their gold. Then, I watched beach volleyball. It was so exciting that I was yelling at the t.v. I still don't get why people get so excited about professional sports, I find them mostly boring, no offense. This Olympic stuff is so suspenseful. Tonight I am hoping to stay awake long enough to watch the womens gymnastics.

In 1996, when my husband and I were newlyweds, my sister-in-law invited us to Atlanta to see women's gymnastics. Yes it was the year of the Dream Team/Golden 7, whatever they were called. We did not have tickets to see the top teams, but we were in Atlanta when they won. We saw many of the other teams and even they were quite phenomenal. It was so exciting to hear that Olympic music while sitting in the huge stadium. The locations of the events were referred to as "venues".

One of the neatest things about being at the Olympics, was riding the Marta train and finding an athlete standing right next to you. It was kind of surreal. Even though we only had tickets to one event, it was just cool being in the same city where you knew that World Records were being broken and gold medals being won.

The 1996 Olympics was the first time I actually purchased bottled water. I just couldn't understand why we had to pay for water--that used to be a foreign concept. They were charging like $3.00 per bottle. If you have ever been in Atlanta during the summer, you will know how important it is to drink water. It was so freaking hot and humid. Of course, there was none to be found, except for the bottles, so we had no choice except to purchase it.

The other fun thing about being in the same city as the Olympics, is all of the different languages that you hear. There were people all over the place that don't even speak English.

While we were in Atlanta, we went to the World of Coke. Check it out if you get a chance. It is really interesting, and you get to drinking all of the Coke products you want. Products from all over the world. We also watched Gone with the Wind and lots and lots of Olympics.

It was hard to go home, but we were only able to stay there a few days. One day after we arrived home, the Olympic bombing took place. That was quite shocking. I kept imagining that I had seen an unattended backpack while I was there, although I probably didn't.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Olympics--do it! The excitement in the air is like none other I have experienced.

GO USA!!!